Improvement in railroad-car ventilators



UNITED STATES PATENT QEEreE;

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-CAR VENTILATORS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent N o. 117,076, dated July 18,1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, J AMEs LELAND HowARD, ofthe city and county ofHartford, in the State of Connecticut, have madean invention of a newand useful Improvement in the Construction of Railroad Cars 5 and thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description and speciiicationof the same.

The object of this invention is to supply the car with fresh air, freefrom dust and my invention consists of the combination of the raisedcentral portion ofthe roof ofthe car, and the hood over the platform, bymeans of a Ventilating airpassage or aperture provided with a registeror valve. This invention is based partly upon the discovery that thedust and sparks do not enter thesaid hood, (probably because they movein directions approximately horizontal, and are deiected by the exteriorsurface of the hood, while those below the mouth of the hood would haveto rise to enter it,) and partly upon the fact that the quantity of airpassing into the car from the interior of the hood is so small, ascompared with the area of the mouth of the hood, that the upward currentof that air in the mouth of the hood is extremely slight, andconsequentlyT the dust and sparks are not carried upward by it. One modeof embodying my invention is represented in the accompanying drawing, inwhich- Figure 1 represents a view in perspective of the upper portion ofa car. Fig. 2 represents a vertical longitudinal section of the car.Fig. 3 represents a transverse section of a portion of the car.

The car-body A and roof B may he constructed in the usual manner nowcustomary, the central part of the roof being raised and fitted withventilating-apertures b at its sides for the escape of foul air. At eachend ofthe car-body there is a hood, C, which extends over the platform,and is open at its under side. The ventilating-aperture or air-passage cfor the entrance of fresh air to the car-body is formed in the upperpart of the end ofthe car which is overlapped by the hood, and isarranged by preference in the central part of the end of the car-body.This aperture also is iitted with a register, E, by which the airpassing through the opening is controlled. Vhen the car thus litted isin motion, air enters at the forward ventilatingaperture or passage, andtends to escape at the rear aperture.. The register or valve may bearranged, if deemed best, to direct the entering air upward or dowir,

ward; and if the rear aperture be closed the whole of the entering airwill escape at the side apertures of the roof, thus affording a Veryefficient ventilation. The presence of the hood over and in advance ofthe forward aperture dellects the sparks and dust that would otherwisetend to enter that aperture 5 and, if deemed best, the risk oi' theentrance of sparks or dust may be still further lessened by means of aperforated guard, df, applied to an opening in the ceiling l of thehood.

Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination of the central raised portion of the roof of the car,the hood over the platform, and the air-passage connecting the spacesunder the hood and in the raised portion of the roof, substantially asbefore set forth.

fitness my hand this 13th day of June A. D. 1871.

JAMES L. HOWARD.

Vitnesses ALBERT L. BURKE, v GEO. H. CAREY.

